Essay Two: Film Project List

Essay Two is based on your viewing and analysis of two war films. You should seriously consider getting a Netflix account, or sharing one with a classmate. You may not be able to find all the selected titles at Blockbuster. You may also try a Kim's in Manhattan, on St. Mark's between 2nd and3rd avenue.

Although this essay is not due until March 27, you might want to begin viewing the films to save time.

If you know of an appropriate film that is not on this list, please contact me and we can arrange to incorporate it into your paper.

Choose One Film From Each List and View It On Your Own:

LIST ONE (First bunch *Extra Credit* 5%)

The Battleship Potemkin (1925)
La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion) (1937)
Ivanovo Detstvo (1962)
Battle of Algiers (1965)
Hotara No Haka (Grave of the Fireflies) (1988)
Life Is Beautiful (1998)
No Man’s Land (2001)
Broken Silence (2002)



All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Paths of Glory (1957)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Platoon (1986)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Jacob's Ladder (1990)
Schindler’s List (1993)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Three Kings (1999)
The Pianist (2002)
The Quiet American (2002)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Jarhead (2005)

LIST TWO

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
Taxi Driver (1977)
Coming Home (1978)
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Heaven and Earth (1993)
Falling Down (1993)

Short One: The Interview Assignment (updated info)

This assignment will be updated after class on Wednesday, February 8th.

Your first "Short" writing piece will be based off your interview with an older relative. You should have a typed version of that interview by Wednesday the 8th--next week.

As you type and condense the interview, I want you to consider the things you learned about the person you interviewed. What stood out to you? Did anything surprise you? Were you already aware of the information presented? Did any of it become meaningful to you? Or does it feel alien? Describe.

A revised version of this "Short" will be due Wednesday the 15th. In the revised version, you'll take the information you learned from the your relative and work it into a 'short' reflection about the role of family memory in your own life and identity, as well as respond to our class discussion and the questions I assign on Wednesday, February 8th.

Essay One: Slavery in New York

Essay One is Due Wednesday, March 1
I will read drafts before February 27
(3-4 Pages)


For Essay One, you will respond to your visit to the New York Historical
Society’s Slavery Exhibition.

Your primary goal for the essay is to discuss how the museum creates the memory and experience of slavery for the museum visitor: you.

In order to generate thoughts about this process, you will specifically address at least two material objects from the exhibition—a washing bowl, a map, an interactive ‘well,’ an old advertisement, a photograph, a short film, or any other physical piece of evidence or connection to the past. You will write about how a particular object can link the present (now) with the past (then). You will write about how the object/piece creates a material link to the past, and what that means for you.

You will also address at least one of the ‘rooms’ the museum devoted to the slavery exhibition. Why did the museum divide the exhibition up into different parts? What part (room) did you find the most effective? Why?

This may lead to a discussion about your experience in the museum itself. How did people react to the exhibition while you were there? How did the museum alter, control, or influence how you interpreted the exhibition? What parts of the exhibition were beyond the control or influence of the museum?

Finally, I want you to consider how the museum acts as an institution, literally, of memory itself. What roles does the museum play, and do all museums play, in the formation of cultural memory? What other links to the past do we have besides the museum? What connections to the past exist outside the museum? To what degree does the museum contain the past? To what degree does the past exceed the capacity of the museum?

Your introduction paragraph, which you should typically write last (or at least revise after writing your paper), should focus all these thoughts by relating your travel to the museum in the first person, and style it like a personal experience essay. You do not need a thesis, but you should summarize your thoughts as best you can, and emphasize the ideas that you believe are the most important in your essay.

If you have space and inclination, I want you to spend some time thinking (and writing) about what this exhibit meant to you as a New Yorker.

When you attend, take pen and paper.

Here is the information about admission and location:

Admission (be sure to bring your student ID)

Members: FreeAdults: $10 Seniors, Students and Teachers: $5 Children 12 and under accompanied by an adult are free

Directions:

The New-York Historical Society is located at 170 Central Park WestTel. (212) 873-3400

Subway: B or C to 81st StreetBus: M10 to 77th Street; M79 to 81st and CPW

Wednesday Class Notes 2/1

The writing based on my questions is meant to begin the process of reflection upon your own values and your own 'life context.' Be sure to fill in any gaps in your thinking over the weekend while your ideas are still fresh. We will return to the writing later.

You should read some of Hedges' comments in his introduction as a challenge, especially the paragraphs we read today in class. Is it really true that only in the shadow of war our lives become more meaningful? Begin to consider the ways you'd refute that claim.

Please note the new links added to the site, and visit them as you see fit to increase your general knowledge. If you find anything you'd like to share with the class, run it by me and we can add it to the site.